Category Archives: Actuarial

After studying from January 1 to June 29, 2014, I sat for Exam C/4 on Monday June 30. The words on the screen after submitting my exam and bypassing the pesky survey, “A preliminary analysis of your test results shows that you were not successful in achieving the passing score established by the SOA/CIA for Exam C…”, were disheartening to say the least. I noticed that the text was missing the phrase I was actually thinking: “Sorry, you failed.”

The word failure has so much negative energy that they don’t want to actually say the word. But really, I wasn’t just “not successful”. I failed. I did not pass. They are equivalent.

I will be sitting for the exam again in October. The thing is, I was ready. I don’t feel like I need another 4 months to study for this test. So today I ordered the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice (FAP) e–Learning Course (commonly known as the FAP Modules). I plan to complete as many of the first 5 modules as I can while studying for my second attempt at C. This is my “new beginning”. I am excited to start the Modules because it will be a break from the same-old, same-old studying for exams. Let’s hope this goes well!

I will be tracking my progress here as I remember. I will hopefully also get back into posting recipes soon. This past month we’ve been eating very simple meals because every spare minute was spent studying. In fact, I think I’ll start with a recipe that’s almost too easy to need a recipe: Cherry Dump Cake. I made it as soon as I got home after failing my exam. It was originally supposed to be a “yay I passed my exam – I deserve a treat” cake, but instead it was a “let’s drown my sorrows in delicious cherry goodness” cake. It was delicious. The lack of leftovers after only being in the fridge for 2 days proves it!